


That Awful Sound

by bourgeoisconcept



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, Drabble, Gen, Not Compliant With OUATIW
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2016-07-07
Packaged: 2018-07-22 01:32:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7413217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bourgeoisconcept/pseuds/bourgeoisconcept
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jefferson finds he’s finally escaped Wonderland, only to realize he’s simply been transferred to a different kind of prison.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Awful Sound

**Author's Note:**

> This is my take on Jefferson waking up in Storybrooke at the beginning of the curse and a reaction he may have had to discovering just what all that entailed. 
> 
> This was not beta-ed, so any and all mistakes are mine.

Memory was a funny thing. At least, that was the impression he’d lived with for— wait. How long was it that he’d given that thought permanent residence in his mind? Could it even qualify as a thought singularly and one hundred percent his own? What other ideas had trickled through the endless meandering curves and manic twists that made up his waking thoughts besides the mantra of _get it to work_. Jefferson couldn’t begin to pinpoint. His mind a mangled mess after he’d slowly but surely forgotten even the purpose of his fevered movements, fingers calloused and scarred from making hat after a hat. Once upon a time, reason had been his vigilant companion but had since become only an occasional visitor, flitting in and out as it pleased.

So it was with a strangled gasp that the man awoke in a lavish home in Storybrooke, sitting in a room whose walls were lined with hats. Jefferson didn’t remember the coming of the curse, the ominous crawl of it as Wonderland was consumed and he wound up tossed in a new and unforgiving world. When he awoke though, grey blue eyes blinking, everything slotted into place. Clarity, one of the most cruel of mistresses, clung to him with all the force it could muster and smothered him until it felt almost suffocating. Another gulp of air pulled into his lungs; a shaky sounding thing but almost steadying nevertheless.

It was a few long minutes before the former realm-jumper was able to make himself move finally toward a window in the room. Though his memory was back at full capacity and the weight of everything now crushed down on him, his mind was still a mess of shattered mirrors and shards of glass. The curse was not meant to bring any kind of real peace, that much was obvious. At least, not to him. And as the seconds ticked by, it began to set in. To _truly_ set in. Leaving Jefferson feeling as though all of the air in the room had gone out and no matter how quickly or deeply he breathed, he’d never get enough.

Chest heaving and heart pounding as eyes darted around the room, the man stood paralyzed in front of a telescope. He wasn’t entirely sure what the thing had been meant for, but a voice in his head was telling him, ’You know. You _know_.’ The voice cackled and he could almost make out some kind of sick grin to accompany it, causing Jefferson to clench and unclench his fists. Fingernails digging deep enough into palms so as to cause pinpricks of blood that went unnoticed. Everything in his vision blurred, blurred, blurred save for one single item. That damned telescope. He felt dizzy, bile rising up in his throat as Jefferson stepped closer into the thing, bent over and pressed an eye to the end.

He didn’t want to believe what he assumed might appear in view would be what he’d end up gazing into. Why? How could that be his luck? Swallowing a growing lump in his throat, Jefferson steeled himself and looked. Sure enough, he was met with a sight that he couldn’t necessarily have predicted but somehow knew would appear in some form or another. Grace. His Grace, sitting with make-believe parents. A make-believe father. The neighbors that had agreed to take care of her when he’d agreed to go on one last job. A whole new wave of nausea took over and this time, Jefferson felt the need to retch, immediately pulling away from the telescope as if he’d been burned. It wasn’t simply the separation that proved to push him over the edge, but the reminder of _what he'd done_.

Eyes going blank as he slid once again deep into the recesses of his labyrinthine thoughts, Jefferson dropped to the floor a few steps away from the telescope. Legs decided their function was no longer necessary and gave out beneath him so the man sat in a heap on the floor and stared down at it as if searching for the answer to some unspoken question. His vision began to blur once again and there was a sound like a sob echoing in the simultaneously too big and too small room. He couldn’t breathe. He needed to get out. Now. But where would he go? He was stuck. Stuck in this awful, giant home all alone with a telescope trained directly on the daughter who no longer knew him. As if to taunt him. And there it was again— the sobbing sound. Was he really alone after all or was it just another trick of his mind?


End file.
